Wow. Tarzan really let himself go.
Jumbo Comics #9
Real Adventures Publishing Company (August-September, 1939)
Apparently Comic Book Plus only had a black-and-white fiche for the source material originally, but around 2019 gained access to a color copy comic scan. Considering the note from editor “Jumbo Jim” says this was their first color outing, it’s nice they were able to get a colored version. So let’s see if this was worth the trouble.
Sheena: Queen Of The Jungle (by W. Morgan Thomas)
Ah, one of Wertham’s favorites. In this tale, Sheena and Bob decide to find a lost city of rumor. They’re all over the jungle, you know. What they find is a madman running the place with his trained apes, a lost explorer, and an exciting adventure. It’s a good story overall, but the “female gorilla” suddenly gets male pronouns partway through the fight, as if the writer forgot what he wrote a few panels earlier (or maybe the gorilla’s trans) and where did the jungle natives Sheena and Bob travel with disappear to? Otherwise it was a good story.
Peter Pupp
One of those “comedy” stories I never seem to find funny. The anthro dogs Peter and Tinymite are on the moon (I’m guessing that’s explained in the previous issue) where they meet giants who like to fight and apparently are hillbillies? What? Man, Buzz Aldrin lied to us! Also, be warned if you haven’t followed yet: there’s a huge 1930s black depiction at the end for no discernable reason.
The Hawk (by Willis Renise)
A white man in a 1939 comic who fights slavery on the high seas? I thought that never happened and they were all still pro-slavery back then? (Especially after the big lipped dark-skinned giant that closed out the previous story for no good reason.) I’m just being lied to all over the place today. Also, the “nubian” in this story has skin as white as everyone else in the story, and there are a lot of caucasians on display. Anyway, Dr. Snyde wants the treasure whose map is tattooed on a boy named Jeremy. This seems to be another story continued from last issue, ss he already has Hawk and Jeremy prisoner. It’s a fine story, and nice to see a seagoing hero who isn’t calling himself a pirate.
Spencer Steel (by Dennis Colebrook)
Hey, a story that’s just in this comic. Haven’t seen that since the Sheena story. Our title detective learns of a protection racket in the town of Chitland, and recruits his reporter friends to expose their operation. Not much to summarize, which is typical of this period of comics, but a really good short story.
Weird Stories Of The Supernatural (by Curt Davis)
Not my usual taste in stories, but it’s a regular comic story and not a gag strip, and I already did Peter Pupp. So let’s do this. A half-mad scientist sends Stuart Taylor into another world, where he ends up leader of an army protecting a city…when the experiment was turning a man invisible. Apparently somebody doesn’t know what “invisible” means, or remember which scientist was the half-mad one. The teaser states that he’ll be projected to other worlds each story. Might be interesting to see, but then the title is kind of misleading. These are weird stories, but this isn’t the supernatural, it’s superscience.
ZX-5: Spies In Action (by Major Thorpe)
The secret agent goes undercover to capture the ring leader of a spy ring. This has some oddities. For one, a girl complains that he’s been lying to her all this time. You two had one sentence of conversation, lady. There’s also a bit of narration that makes me wonder if this was taken from a newspaper strip. It’s okay, but not one of the better stories thus far.
Wilton Of The West (by Fred Sande) “The Crimson Rider”
An actual story title and not just a character name or series title. Frankly they should have given The Crimson Rider top billing because it’s all about him foiling the plans of someone trying to take over the territory. Wilton just helps when the Rider realizes the bad guys are trying to trap him, including the guy with the overblown Mexican accent I tiiink. The teaser claims we get to see him unmasked next story, but I’m just curious if this is the Old West or not. It’s all horses and the usual cowboy stuff, but they rob a bus.
Inspector Dayton (by Geo. Thatcher)
Our hero is tortured to learn where the man our baddie needs to kill to keep him from squealing is. Dayton has to be saved by the kid sidekick and two guys sent from the Chinatown shop the kid gets a fake fire power from. Our hero, folks. I kid, though. It’s not a bad story, just not a strong one.
overall
A comic with more good things than bad. However, it takes a long time to get through. Made a decision that next week I’m going to swap this with our current pre-DC Blue Beetle runthrough. So next week the virtual newsstand is moving to Friday and the Blue Beetle/Captain Atom will be here on Tuesday. Adjust your calendars as needed.
BW Media Spotlight 